Book Review - The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
Category Book Review Dan Roam The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Most business presentations rely on fancy graphs, professional graphics, and slick tools to get their point across. But sometimes, the most effective way to make your case is to whip out a napkin and start drawing. Dan Roam covers that subject in the book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. This opened my eyes to many different concepts that I somewhat took for granted, as well as giving me a framework for getting better at the whiteboard...
Contents:
Part 1 - Introductions - Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere - Solving Problems with Pictures: A Whole New Way of Looking at Business; Which Problems, Which Pictures, and Who is "We"?; A Gamble We Can't Lose - The Four Steps of Visual Speaking
Part 2 - Discovering Ideas - Looking Better, Seeing Sharper, Imagining Further - Tools and Rules for Good Visual Thinking: No Thanks, Just Looking; The Six Ways of Seeing; The SQVID - A Practical Lesson in Applied Imagination; Frameworks for Showing
Part 3 - Developing Ideas - The Visual Thinking MBA - Putting Visual Thinking to Work: Showing and The Visual Thinking MBA; Who Are Our Customers? - Pictures That Solve a Who/What Problem; How Many Are Buying? - Pictures That Solve a How Much Problem; Where Is Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a Where Problem; When Can We Fix Things? - Pictures That Solve a When Problem; How Can We Improve Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a How Problem; Why Should We Even Bother? - Pictures That Solve a Why Problem
Part 4 - Selling Ideas - It's Showtime; Everything I Know About Business I Learned In Show-And-Tell; Drawing Conclusions
Acknowledgments; Appendix A - The Science of Visual Thinking; Appendix B - Resources for Visual Thinkers
Probably the most famous example of this type of learning is the Southwest Airlines story. Herb Kelleher and Rollin King were discussing a failed airline of King's. King took a napkin, drew a triangle on it, and labeled each corner Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. This flight plan for a small regional airline broke a number of "rules", and the result of this simple drawing became Southwest Airlines four years later. It would have been "normal" to present an idea like this with PowerPoint slides, full color documents, and endless spreadsheets showing the numbers. But the most effective way of illustrating the concept was a simple napkin and pen. Roam has studied the science behind this deceptively simple idea and shows how nearly any idea can not only be communicated in this fashion, but most often can be communicated more succinctly than any other method. The act of drawing and simplifying concepts draws people in and puts life behind your message in a way that sterile professional graphics can't do.
Rather than just say "draw more", Roam creates a framework that allows you to figure out what type of picture applies. The problem is one of the following: who/what (portrait), how much (chart), where (map), when (timeline), how (flowchart), and why (plot). Within each of those frameworks, you have five options of what to show (the SQVID method): S (simple > elaborate), Q (quality > quantity), V (vision > execution), I (individual > comparison), and D (change > as-is). Once you understand these different conditions, the type of picture becomes clear, and then it's a matter of drawing the information. Keep in mind we're not talking about elaborate illustrations... stick figures and simple shapes will do. And that's a good thing, as "art" is not my forte... :)
This is another one of those books that will forever change the way you think about sharing information with others in a business or professional setting. This doesn't replace high-end, quality proposals or presentations... Instead, it simplifies and clarifies the message you have, and allows you to share it in a fraction of the time you might need for a formal, text/picture/word-laden meeting. This ranks right up with Presentation Zen in terms of books that change the way I work, and did so immediately.
Most business presentations rely on fancy graphs, professional graphics, and slick tools to get their point across. But sometimes, the most effective way to make your case is to whip out a napkin and start drawing. Dan Roam covers that subject in the book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. This opened my eyes to many different concepts that I somewhat took for granted, as well as giving me a framework for getting better at the whiteboard...
Contents:
Part 1 - Introductions - Anytime, Anyone, Anywhere - Solving Problems with Pictures: A Whole New Way of Looking at Business; Which Problems, Which Pictures, and Who is "We"?; A Gamble We Can't Lose - The Four Steps of Visual Speaking
Part 2 - Discovering Ideas - Looking Better, Seeing Sharper, Imagining Further - Tools and Rules for Good Visual Thinking: No Thanks, Just Looking; The Six Ways of Seeing; The SQVID - A Practical Lesson in Applied Imagination; Frameworks for Showing
Part 3 - Developing Ideas - The Visual Thinking MBA - Putting Visual Thinking to Work: Showing and The Visual Thinking MBA; Who Are Our Customers? - Pictures That Solve a Who/What Problem; How Many Are Buying? - Pictures That Solve a How Much Problem; Where Is Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a Where Problem; When Can We Fix Things? - Pictures That Solve a When Problem; How Can We Improve Our Business? - Pictures That Solve a How Problem; Why Should We Even Bother? - Pictures That Solve a Why Problem
Part 4 - Selling Ideas - It's Showtime; Everything I Know About Business I Learned In Show-And-Tell; Drawing Conclusions
Acknowledgments; Appendix A - The Science of Visual Thinking; Appendix B - Resources for Visual Thinkers
Probably the most famous example of this type of learning is the Southwest Airlines story. Herb Kelleher and Rollin King were discussing a failed airline of King's. King took a napkin, drew a triangle on it, and labeled each corner Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. This flight plan for a small regional airline broke a number of "rules", and the result of this simple drawing became Southwest Airlines four years later. It would have been "normal" to present an idea like this with PowerPoint slides, full color documents, and endless spreadsheets showing the numbers. But the most effective way of illustrating the concept was a simple napkin and pen. Roam has studied the science behind this deceptively simple idea and shows how nearly any idea can not only be communicated in this fashion, but most often can be communicated more succinctly than any other method. The act of drawing and simplifying concepts draws people in and puts life behind your message in a way that sterile professional graphics can't do.
Rather than just say "draw more", Roam creates a framework that allows you to figure out what type of picture applies. The problem is one of the following: who/what (portrait), how much (chart), where (map), when (timeline), how (flowchart), and why (plot). Within each of those frameworks, you have five options of what to show (the SQVID method): S (simple > elaborate), Q (quality > quantity), V (vision > execution), I (individual > comparison), and D (change > as-is). Once you understand these different conditions, the type of picture becomes clear, and then it's a matter of drawing the information. Keep in mind we're not talking about elaborate illustrations... stick figures and simple shapes will do. And that's a good thing, as "art" is not my forte... :)
This is another one of those books that will forever change the way you think about sharing information with others in a business or professional setting. This doesn't replace high-end, quality proposals or presentations... Instead, it simplifies and clarifies the message you have, and allows you to share it in a fraction of the time you might need for a formal, text/picture/word-laden meeting. This ranks right up with Presentation Zen in terms of books that change the way I work, and did so immediately.